The Great Pyramid and the Origin of the Egyptian Calendar

It is widely known that the Great Pyramid was so built so that its Entrance Gallery points directly to the Pole Star. Except that the Pole Star in question is not Thuban (a Draconis), but Vega (a Lyrae), the brightest star of the whole Northern Hemisphere. The astronomical alignment with Thuban, the Pole Star of Cheops’ epoch, was discovered by Sir John Herschell and elaborated by Piazzi Smyth over a century ago. However, the correct alignments occur at 2,160 BC and 3,440 BC, dates which are off the times of Pharaoh Cheops (2,570 BC) by several centuries. This discrepancy later led Sir John Herschell to reject his results, after he learnt of it.
Moreover, recent astronomical advances, done after the remarkable determinations of Herschell and Smyth, prove that the misalignment of Thuban due to effects such as Earth’s libration, the star’s proper motion, dating errors, instrumental and computational errors, and others, amounts to about a full degree, an intolerable quantity in astronomy, for the Egyptian tolerances were at least a hundred times better than that.
It is also doubtful whether Cheops ever built the Great Pyramid, which all legends date from before the Flood, and link to Atlantis. This paper proves that, instead, the Great Pyramid accurately pointed to Vega, the main star of the Northern Hemisphere at 6:00 PM, June 24, 11,917 BC, that is, the First Hour of the First Day of the First Month (Toth) of the First Year of the Egyptian calendar.
This day corresponds to the Summer Solstice (Midsummer or St. John’s day), and the hour is that of the conventional start of the day in antiquity, whereas the year is a Sothic Year, when the stellar date corresponds with the solar one of the seasons. This unique discovery opens up new perspectives for the prehistory of Mankind, as it cannot be purely coincidental. Such a precise alignment, at so archaic a date, requires either a superior astronomy or conversely, precise observations for tens of thousands of years. Either of these two hypotheses frontally collides with all that is known of human prehistory.

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The Soul has two eyes. One gazes at the years, the other at eternity.
Silesius

Introduction

Every Pyramid-lover knows of the celebrated discovery of Sir John Herschell that the Great Pyramid — or, rather, its entrance, the so-called Entrance Gallery or Descending Corridor — allegedly pointed to Thuban (a Draconis) in 2,160 BC, when that star was approximately the Pole Star. This discovery made quite a sensation when it was done by Herschell in 1840.
The Egyptologists were then rather uncertain about the true dates of the Egyptian dynasties, and were very glad to observe the near agreement between the computations of modern astronomy and the ones of classical archaeology. However, some of them were dissatisfied, for they felt that the epoch of Cheops had been far earlier.
And then, Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer-Royal for Scotland during the late nineteenth century, came to the rescue, for Sir Herschell had abandoned the arena, after he learnt of the inadequacy of his calculations. Piazzi Smyth refined Sir Herschell’s calculations and arrived at yet another, earlier date for Thuban’s alignment with the Great Pyramid: that of 3,440 BC. So, everybody was satisfied for a while, and both the Egyptologists who favoured the long count and the ones who opted for the short count could take their pick according to their individual preference, choosing between the values offered by Herschell and Smyth.
Again, the initial joy would not endure. The advance of knowledge led Egyptologists to converge on a date of about 2,613 BC for the start of the Old Dynasty and of about 2,570 BC for the construction of the Great Pyramid. Piazzi Smyth brilliantly defended his point in his several treatises on the Great Pyramid, but his efforts failed to convince the scientific community. Smyth’s fanaticism about the so-called Pyramid’s Prophecies also badly damaged his case, and tended to frighten away sympathisers.
Later, more refined calculations and measurements by Piazzi Smith yielded dates of 2,170 BC and 3,440 BC. He himself preferred the lower date for several astronomical reasons which he expounds in his books. One of these was that the date of the transit of 2,170 BC coincided with the Vernal Equinox (Mach 21). Another was that this transit coincided with the one of the Pleiades (Alcyone or h Tauri) culminating over the meridian of the Great Pyramid.

The Inadequacy of Thuban

Alas, all was not that perfect, and Piazzi Smyth had to justify certain difficult discrepancies. Had the Egyptians wished to indicate Thuban’s polarity, they would have aimed the Pyramid fully 3° 26’ further up, for this star passes at a scant 3’ away from the Pole. In contrast, the closest approach of Vega to the Pole is precisely that much, showing most inequivocally that this is indeed the star the ancient Egyptians had in mind.
Moreover, the corresponding upper culmination of the Pleiades was off by about 17’, an intolerably large error in astronomy, as it amounts to about 20 years or more in the yearly positions. The second is that the alignment corresponded to the lower culmination of Thuban, and any experienced astronomer would pick the upper culmination for several reasons.
A further, serious objection, is that the Egyptians started the year on July 22 (1st. of Toth), at the Summer Solstice, when the Nile started to Flood, and not on the Spring Equinox, as Piazzi Smyth propounded. Hence, the date on which he relied for the substantiation of his choice had little or no meaning, insofar as the Egyptian calendar was concerned.
But, the most serious objection to Piazzi Smyth’s and Herschell’s calculations lies, perhaps, in the fact that they did not include certain corrections that add up to over a full degree, and which throw their results off by large amounts. These corrections are due to the proper motion of the star, as well as the change of tilt (or libration) of the earth, which has an amplitude of circa ±1.2º about the mean of 23.0°, and a period of about 41,000 years. These and other corrections here mentioned are fully discussed in Appendix I.
To the above, we must add other corrections due to the proper motion of Thuban; a large error of about 15’ in the measurement of the inclination of the Great Pyramid’s entrance corridor, and others such. Such corrections were unknown in Herschell’s and Smyth’s time, and only became feasible recently. As a matter of fact, Earth’s libration has only been calculated from Celestial Mechanics, and has not been directly observed by positional astronomers, who generally disregard its existence. These corrections are usually small, but add up to a considerable amount over the huge span of time that separates us from the construction of the Great Pyramid.
To top the above problems, there is the fact that Thuban (a Draconis) is an insignificant star (4th. magnitude), with no legend attached to itself. Random alignments can indeed happen, as in the case of Thuban, for there are literally billions of stars in the skies. But they only occur with insignificant stars and insignificant dates, entirely destitute of meaning. And, as we just said, the misalignment of Thuban amounts to an intolerably large quantity, insofar as astronomical measurements are concerned, for the ancient Egyptians were consistently capable of accuracies of better than 1’ of a degree.
Vega’s alignment is an entirely different thing. To start with, it was predicted in Egyptian traditions. This beautiful blue star is the brightest of all in the Northern Hemisphere, and its alignment with the Great Pyramid occurred at the unique occasion when Vega was the Pole Star, some 14,000 years ago. And the date in question is precisely that of the start of the Egyptian calendar, an event ruled by Hathor, the goddess of Vega as the Pole Star that heralded the Flood and the start of the calendar and the New year in Egypt.
How could the ancient Egyptians know of Vega’s polarity, and correctly link this event with the Flood and the era of Virgo and Leo if they did not know of the Precession of the Equinoxes and of the peculiar path of the Polar Axis in the skies? The odds against a chance coincidence of Vega’s alignment are simply too enormous to even be considered seriously. In Appendix I we demonstrate that the probability against such an alignment being random is under one part in something like 1024, a number that is unthinkably small. This number amounts to 1followed by 24 zeros, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one quintillion).

The Confirmatory Evidence

There is an ample amount of confirmatory evidence that the Egyptian (and others) calendar indeed started some 14,000 years ago, when Vega was the Pole Star and the Summer Solstice lay at the centre of the sign of Virgo, the conventional starting point of the zodiac in antiquity. Moreover, the conventional hour for the start of the day was 6:00 A.M., the hour when the Sun rises in the day of the equinox.
As we shall see below, the planisphere of Dendera —which, far more than a zodiac, was a detailed chart of the skies, expressed by a clever projection that allows its precise dating — also points, like the Great Pyramid, to a start when the Summer Solstice fell at the centre of the sign of Virgo. This planisphere also shows Hathor as the Cow-Mother, with the Pole Star (Vega) between its horns, at the head of the zodiacal procession.
Another zodiac, engraved at the door of Dendera’s temple, also starts with the signs of Virgo and Leo, and has a Sphinx placed at its start, between the descending and the ascending portions. The Sphinx is a figuration of Hathor, the goddess who could assume the shapes of a Lioness (Sekhmet), of a Cow (Nut), of a Woman (Isis) and an Eagle or Vulture (Nekhbet). This zodiac is similar to the one found in Eshneh (Upper Egypt), which also has a Sphinx at its start, between Virgo and Leo.
Virgo represents a woman harvesting corn, a task traditionally performed at the Summer Solstice. Accordingly, many ancient zodiacs start with the sign of Virgo and represent, on its side, a figure harvesting corn, as an indication of the corresponding season. Such is the case of the widely discussed zodiac of Notre Dame’s cathedral, as well as the less well-known one of the synagogue of Beth-Alpha (Israel).
An extremely interesting Hindu zodiac, published in the Philosophical Transactions for l772, also starts with the sign of Virgo, and has another Virgin at the centre, certainly representing Vega as the Pole Star at the centre of the skies. The same is true of Notre Dame’s zodiac, which shows the Virgin Mary at its centre, astride upon a pole on which is coiled the Primordial Serpent (the constellation Draco).
Such zodiacs, which have been amply discussed over the last two centuries by all sorts of experts, inequivocally attest the fact that the calendar and the zodiac both started at the Summer Solstice (June 24), when this point yet lay in the centre of the era of Virgo, some 14,000 years ago. Traditionally, the zodiacal eras (point g) started at the centre of the signs, before Hipparchus placed it at the start of the respective constellations, in 150 BC.
This date for the start of the calendar is hard to accept, for it contradicts all that is officially taught about the pre-history of Mankind. But it can hardly be resisted, as it is inequivocally indicated by all sorts of Traditional evidence, such as the ones we just mentioned. Moreover, it cannot have been simply faked, say, by artfully embodying it in zodiacs such as above ones, for it is also astronomically indicated by the Great Pyramid, in a way that is wholly beyond the scientific capabilities of the ancient Egyptians.

The Importance of Myths

Legends are highly important for the decipherment of the ancient secrets, as they embody the occult message our ancestors wished to transmit to later generations. A well-known example is the case of Schliemann, the illustrious discoverer of Troy. Schliemann took the poems of Homer in earnest, and discovered the lost city of Troy in Turkey, against the opinion of all experts, who tended to deny its historicity.
Such is the case here. We only discovered the alignment of Vega with the Great Pyramid because we were guided by ancient legends claiming that it was the Pole Star associated with Atlantis and the Flood. Moreover, the Egyptian charts of the skies such as the accurate one of Dendera’s planisphere inequivocally show that, at the start of the Egyptian calendar, Vega was indeed the Pole Star, and the Summer Solstice then fell in the era of Virgo, precisely the one indicated by the alignment of the Great Pyramid.
Leaving the astronomical arguments, we now turn to the mythical corroborations. Let us start by reviewing a few legends connecting the Great Pyramid to Atlantis and to Ante-Diluvian traditions. To begin with, the very name of the Pyramid apparently means something like “star-measurer” or, rather, “computer of Celestial omens”.
Hence, it seems that Pyramid mystics and astrologers such as Piazzi Smyth and Sir Herschell were intuitively following an ancient tradition when trying to discover the so-called “Pyramid Prophecies”. The Great Pyramid is in reality a sort of supercomputer, intended for the computing of crucial dates related to the destiny of Mankind. The word “horoscope” means (in Greek) “observing (or forecasting) the hour”, and implies a scientific, astronomical determination rather than sheer fortune-telling.
Strange though the concept might seem, this is precisely what some geologists and astronomers attempt to do when they try to establish a link between the Ice Ages and the stellar ephemerides by means of the so-called Milankovitch Theory. Perhaps the ancient prophecies such as those concerning the advent of the Millennium are of the self-fulfilling variety, and actually come about because everybody expects them to occur at the predicted dates, and join in the collective effort to cause them to come about.

Vega, the Pole Star of Hathor, the Great Mother

Vega is the main star of the Northern Hemisphere, and one of the most beautiful ones of the whole sky. Vega used to be the Pole Star some 14,000 years ago, a role that now incumbs to Polaris (a Ursae Minoris) and one she will resume some 12,000 years from now, when the Precession of the Equinoxes again completes a full cycle, causing Vega to return to its starting point, in the era of Virgo.
Just as Sirius — which the Egyptians called by the name of Sothis — was the star attributed to Isis, the Great Mother of the Egyptians, Vega was the star connected with Hathor, the Great Cow-Mother. Hathor later became identified with Isis. But, originally, she was the patron goddess of Punt, the mythical land of origin of the Egyptians. Punt was the Egyptian equivalent of Hell and Paradise, located side-by-side in the same region, beyond the horizon and the ocean (Indian).
Even today, the non-Muslim Egyptian peasants revere Hathor (or Athyr), the cow-mother, whom they associate with a great star whose identity they have long forgotten. Hathor’s name means “House (or Temple) of Horus”, the god who was both her son and her lover. Horus was associated with the planet Venus, and his mystical relationship with Vega-Hathor may refer to some sort of Celestial ephemeris.
Hat also means “brow”, “eye”, so that Hat-hor indeed means “Eye of Horus”, that is, the mysterious Udjat. Hathor was originally the goddess of love, music and gaiety (like Venus), but later became the Goddess of the Dead and of the Western Regions (Amenti). This degradation may well refer to the “fall” of Vega, her star, from the Polar position, the topmost in the skies. This myth is embodied in the Arabian name of Vega, al Wakk, “the Fallen Eagle”.
Hathor’s temple of Dendera (or Dendera) was one of the most beautiful in all of Egypt, and is famous for its planisphere, stolen and taken to Paris by the French. Dendera derives its name from the Egyptian Ta-ynt-nethert (“The Goddess of the Pillar”) which later became Tentyra and then Dendera. The name seems to imply that the ancient Egyptians somehow knew that Vega — now very far from the Celestial Pole — was once the Pole Star, as the words “Pole” and “Pillar” were synonymous in antiquity.
Experts such as Schwaller de Lubicz hold that Dendera’s zodiac is extremely ancient and, though the temple and its zodiac have been refurbished several times, the Celestial configurations shown in it date back to about 12,000 BC. The antiquity of Hathor’s temple of Dendera is confirmed by inscriptions that tell of its reconstruction by Pharaoh Cheops — the alleged erector of the Great Pyramid — and of another one, done in predynastic times.
Hathor’s temple is decorated with gigantic Hathor-headed sistrum pillars as well as winged discs which seem to allude to the Polar position of her star (Vega) and of her mystical connection with the constellation Lyra, that of this star. Indeed, Hathor is frequently figured with a sistrum-face that closely evokes a lyre, or as a cow having lyre-shaped horns, between which shines the Pole Star. The pillars of Hathor’s temple in Dendera symbolise the Polar Axis, a fact that is known to many specialists.
In other renditions, the goddess bears a crown of feathers which seem to be those of the lyrebird (Lyra), again with her star shining at its centre. Certain scenes showed Hathor as a sistrum-horned lady suckling Horus under a palm-tree. This image passed into Phoenicia as that of Astarte suckling Eshmun (Baal), and the palm-tree seems to represent the Polar Axis and the Tree of Life.
The legends linking Hathor to Vega (a Lyrae) and to the constellation Lyra, the Lyrebird, are virtually myriad. So are her connections with the Pole Star, a fact that indubitably shows that the ancient knew not only of the Precession of the Equinoxes, but also of the precise path of the Polar Axis on the Celestial sphere. Of course, this knowledge was reserved to the initiates, and its divulgation to the profanes was strictly forbidden.

Vega and Start of the New Era of Mankind

The goddess Hathor and her star, Vega, were also connected with the Egyptian New Year, just as was Isis-Sothis, her later avatar. The Egyptian New Year was considered the anniversary of Hathor, and was commemorated with great feasts in her temple in Dendera.
At dawn, the priestesses of her temple exposed her image to the worship of the faithful and to the rays of the rising sun. Her appearance was commemorated with shouts of joy, and a veritable carnival ensued, which lasted for the whole day, being marked by wild dances, revelry and heavy drinking.
In a way, this reversal of normal behaviour and the festivities of the New Year commemorated the Flood and the end of the previous era, with the rebirth of the new one that ensued, with all old values reversed. But the goddess Hathor is even more directly linked with the Flood in her guise as Vega, the divine Eye of Ra.
Indeed, Sir Norman Lockyer has shown that some Egyptian temples were so constructed that the light of this star could shine directly over the altar of the goddess. The name of the star Vega means “Flood” in Sanskrit and “Pole Star” or “Morning Star” in Dravida, these two being the holiest languages of India. These etyms embody a direct connection between Vega as the Pole Star, with the start of the calendar, at the dawn of the present era, some 14,000 years ago.
The radix veg- or vek- also means “to see” in these tongues and, by extension, implies the idea of “eye”. Hence, Vega also means “Eye Star”, just as does the name of Hathor (“Eye of Horus”). Indeed, Isis and Hathor represent the two “eye-stars”, Vega and Sirius, the two Eyes of Ra (or of Horus) who execute the Flood and the Conflagration that delimit the years and the eras and which separate the two Egypts, the real one and the mythical one, the one beyond the horizon and the seas.

The Celestial Eye of God

In the Egyptian myth of the Flood, the Eye of Ra assumes the shape of Hathor, the Cow-goddess, who then changes into Sekhmet, the Lioness. Under this terrific shape, the goddess perpetrates a brutal carnage and threatens to eliminate all mankind. The gods got startled at the goddess’ brutality and devised a scheme to stop the Eye.
Under Ra’s direction they prepared a huge quantity of blood-red beer, which they tricked the blood-thirsty goddess into drinking. Hathor got so drunk that she stopped her grim business, and humanity was spared from extinction. The drunken, satiated goddess resumed her cow shape, and re-entered the palace of the gods, where she lived amid the Celestial Company.
Later, disappointed with mankind and with the start of the Dark Age, Hathor and Ra ascended into the skies, where they disappeared. The myth of Hathor-Sekhmet as the Eye of Ra is a transparent allegory of Celestial events. The Eye is, an allegory of Vega, which was, as we said above, the Pole Star of the zodiacal era of Leo, the Lioness (Sekhmet).
Indeed, Hathor was often figured as the Sphinx, a mix of lioness, cow, woman and eagle that embodies the quadruple aspects of Hathor. The figure of Hathor as the Sphinx was inserted at the start of the Egyptian zodiacs such as the square one of the door of the temple of Dendera, or that found in Eshneh, in Upper Egypt.
In the planisphere of Dendera, Hathor figures prominently at the start, with the Pole Star between her horns. Hathor is placed just before the signs of Leo and of the three virgins that represent the three aspects of Virgo, as well as he three stars Sirius, Venus and Vega.

The Fall of the Eagle

As Vega fell away in the skies, the role of Hathor, her personification, was gradually superseded by Sirius and its goddess, Isis. In brief, it can be said that Isis-Sothis represents Egypt, whereas Hathor-Vega symbolises the ancestral Egypt, the same as the mythical Punt. Perhaps, the fall of Hathor and her star, the Fallen Eagle (al Wakk), from the Polar position corresponds to the ones of Adam and of Lucifer in the Judeo-Christian tradition. After all, Lucifer was the Morning Star, precisely the one of Hathor.
The connection of the Eye — the All-Seeing Eye of God — with the Great Pyramid is too close to be denied. As such, for instance, it also figures in the Presidential Seal of the United States, which shows a pyramid, topped by the Eye, and bears the inscription Novus Ordo Seclorum (“the New Order of Times”). Such symbols are of Masonic origin, and have a secret connection with the ancient traditions of Egypt and elsewhere.
In Masonic symbolism, the Flaming Star represents the Pole Star, as well as the All-Seeing Eye of God. And, as we said above, the Eye is often figured inside the triangle that represents the Great Pyramid. The All-Seeing-Eye — figured as the Eye of God inside a triangle — is represented in all Masonic lodges. It was the emblem of Osiris in Egypt, of Brahma in India, and of God in early Christianism.
The Eye is also the favourite symbol of Occultists both of the Orient and the Occident. In Muslim (Sufi) esoterism it is the “Eye of the Heart” (aynul-galb), and in the Hebrew Caballa it is the iod (“eye” or “goad”) that figures inside the triangle, and which represents the divine presence of Jahveh, the avenging deity of the Flood.
In Hinduism it is the Third Eye of Shiva which incends the whole world, and in Buddhism it is the one of Tara (“star”), the Great Mother of Compassion. Finally, the Evil Eye is perhaps the most prevalent of all superstitions. We said all that in order to justify our connection of the Eye, the Great Pyramid, the Pole Star Vega with the star of a new era, the great New Year heralded by Vega’s polarity and by the start of the Era of the Lioness (Leo or Sekhmet).
By the way, the peculiar entrance of the Great Pyramid closely resembled an eye inside a triangle, and was covered by a sort of an eyelid consisting of a flipping stone. This door — the access to the Entrance Gallery — though brutally disfigured, still visibly preserves that image of the All-Seeing-Eye even today. In Indian tradition, Vega (there called Abhijit, a name meaning something like “supreme one”, i. e. the Pole Star), is represented by an equilateral triangle that closely recalls the Great Pyramid. Vega is there also identified with Urvashi, the Great Mother of the Gandharvas, who is a personification of Dawn and the Pole Star.
It is easy to imagine how the fateful “eye” of the Great Pyramid opened up as reluctantly as the ominous Third Eye of Shiva, or that of Balar, of the Baleful Eye, when the time came to prognosticate the end of an era or the beginning of a new one. Indeed, it seems that the Egyptian Udjat, usually translated as “Decorated Eye” indeed derives from the Dravida wed-chatti (“the Eye of Destruction”). This tongue also has wed-chatti meaning “eyeshadow”, and we see here the origin of the wordplay used by the Egyptians.

Atlantis and the Ante-Diluvian Pillar

As is clear, there is a considerable mythical foundation for the connection of the Great Pyramid’s Entrance Gallery with the Pole Star Vega, with the Great Mother Hathor, and with the Flood and the start of the New Era that ensued the calamity. And there is also an equally stringent link between the Great Pyramid and Atlantis or, rather, with the cataclysm that sunk the lost continent. Again, space does not allow a full coverage, and we limit ourselves to the barest essentials of the legend.
Josephus (Antiq. I:II:3) relates how the descendants of Seth, the son of Adam, foreseeing that the world would soon be destroyed by the Flood, and wishing to preserve their superior astronomical knowledge for future generations, constructed two pyramids or pillars, one of bricks, the other of stone, in which they incorporated all sorts of stellar information.
Josephus further affirms that one of these pillars “still remains in the land of Siriad to this day”. All experts converge in identifying this Biblical “pillar” with the Great Pyramid, and “the land of Siriad” with Egypt, that of Sirius-Sothis. The Bible embodies several references to the Great Pyramid and its Celestial omens in a way that suggests their connection with “the Day of the Lord”, and events such as era transitions.
The Arab writers — the heirs of Egypt and its fabulous culture — also confirm these traditions, which extend far before the writings of Josephus. Maqrisi (1360 – 1442) relates a dream of Pharaoh Surid (Cheops) in which he was told to build the Pyramid and store there all kinds of precious things in order to preserve them from the forthcoming Flood.
Surid engraved there “all the sciences familiar to the ancient Egyptians: drawings of the stars and their courses; the names of all drugs both useful and harmful; the science of talismans, of geometry, of architecture, and, in brief, of all sciences, registered very clearly for the benefit of all those that can understand their message”. Maqrisi also refers to “favourable stellar conjunctions” and to:

…chambers representing the stars and their constellations… the planets… the tables of the fixed stars and their revolutions in the sequence of times, as well as the list of past events subject to their influence and the epochs in which they should be observed in order to know the future; in short all things that referred to Egypt till the end of times…

Massudi, Ali ben Raduan, Abu ben Ishaq el-Nadim, Abu Mohammed el Hokm, Al Biruni and several other Arab historians also mention the Great Pyramid and its connection with the Flood and with Celestial events of great importance. Maqrisi ends his chapter on the Pyramids quoting these verses of the cadi Fakhr el-Masri, composed in the Middle Ages:

Was it a pious man who erected these pillars? Have they been built to honour his idols? Or are they the work a believer in metempsychosis, Who built them to hold his body and his treasures, And to preserve them from the impending Flood?

Were they, perhaps, astronomical observatories, Chosen by star-gazers because of the site’s excellency? Or do they hold the secrets of stellar calculations Such as the ones of the Persians and the Greeks?

Do the engravings on their faces contain A science that the spirit strives to understand? In the hearts of all those who behold these secrets, A desire to know and understand their meaning, Instinctively arises and overpowers one’s members.

Pyramidomania

Unfortunately, as the greatest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyramid has been the preferred subject of all kinds of fanatics. But the wild speculations of “Pyramidiots” do not detract from the fact that this grandiose monument may indeed encompass the marvels of a superior science bequeathed us by our Atlantean ancestors.
The same thing is true of Religion. The abundance of fanatics, zealots and false prophets of all sorts does not invalidate religiosity, nor does it disprove the existence of God. The greatest intellectuals of all time — men like Einstein, Newton, Galileo, Da Vinci, Bruno, Campanella and numberless others — have always been willing to devout their entire lives to the study of the Occult and to the quest for Truth, very often at the risk of their reputation and even of their personal integrity. Were they all ignorant fools or did they know of something that is not so plain to us, ordinary mortals and hardened sceptics?
Evidence is mounting from all corners tending to support the existence of Superior Civilisations of the far past, so remote in time that their recollection only survives in religious myths and in holy traditions. We sincerely hope that our discovery about the origin of Mankind and of the Egyptian calendar may open a new door to our forgotten past and to ancestral generations far wiser than our own.

The Hermetic Evidence

As we said above, there are many Hermetic traditions and similar pieces of evidence of all sorts showing that Vega was indeed the Pole Star of the epoch of the calendar start. Vega is also associated with the construction of the Great Pyramid and the start of the Zodiac. For instance, the zodiacs of Dendera, as well as those of Eshneh and others inequivocally show that Vega, represented as the Cow-Mother or the Virgin Mother, was the Pole Star at the occasion of the start of the calendar.
Moreover, the calendar of Notre Dame’s cathedral and the Hindu one mentioned in the main text, which start by the era of Virgo, the one of the beginning of the calendar, portray the Virgin Mother at the center of the zodiac and, hence, at the Pole Position. Numberless other Egyptian traditions explicitly affirm the fact that Vega, the star of Hathor was once the Pole Star.
Hathor was invoked as “the heart of the Zodiac” in Egyptian texts, an expression that is mystically synonymous with the Polar position of her star, Vega. Indeed, the Hermetists interpreted her name as meaning “the abode of the Falcon” (Hat-hor), this being the bird which flew highest of all. As in the zodiac of Dendera, they represented the falcon alighted upon a papyrus stem that represents the Pole. Elsewhere, the Falcon or the Heron (Benu Bird or Phoenix) perch upon the Pyramid as a further representation of the same idea.
The three main stars of the skies, Vega, Sirius and Venus represented the Goddess in her triple aspect of the Cow-Mother (Hathor), the Great Mother (Isis), and the Whore-Mother (Nephtis), all three considered as the Heralds of Dawn and of the New Era. Jean-Louis Bernard, in a book published 20 years ago (Aux Origines de l’Egypte, Paris, 1976), explicitly claims that the Egyptians associated Hathor with Vega as the Pole Star, and questions his readers:

Who built the Great Pyramid? Was it Cheops? If not, how can we date this monument? When the Great Pyramid was built, its Entrance Corridor was aimed at a specific star, the Pole Star. But this star was not the same as the present Pole Star… Most Hermetists reject the usual chronology, and refuse to attribute the monument’s paternity to Cheops. This king merely rebuilt the Great Pyramid, modifying its purpose to his own ends.
These Hermetists base themselves on teachings that associate the Celestial Egypt with Vega, rather than with Alpha Draconis. This would be the Pole Star contemporaneous with the foundation of Terrestrial Egypt. Such a fact means that the Great Pyramid was built at the epoch when Vega was the Pole Star, that is, at about 10,000 or 11,000 years ago, the epoch of the destructive cataclysms which we mentioned above…

The cataclysms mentioned by Bernard are those of Fire and Water associated with the Flood and the destruction of Primordial Egypt. Hence, as we see, Bernard and other authorities that he quotes, explicitly identify the Pole Star pointed at by the Great Pyramid as Vega, which they also link to Hathor and to the Great Pyramid, basing themselves on Hermetic sources.
So, somehow, the ancients well knew that the Great Pyramid was aligned not with Thuban or Polaris, the other Pole Stars, that are not indeed aligned with the monument, but with Vega, a fact that our precise calculations fully confirm beyond reasonable doubt.
Conclusion: The Crucial Dilemma
If the start of the Egyptian calendar and the alignment of the Great Pyramid marking its exact date can really be set at 140 centuries ago, we are left with two perspectives:

1) The Great Pyramid was built that long ago, before the so-called Neolithic Period. But this would require a major revision of human prehistory, as its technology of construction is perhaps the greatest technological feat ever accomplished by Man.
2) The Great Pyramid was indeed constructed by the Egyptians of the IV Dynasty, who incorporated (artificially) the alignment by means of astronomical calculations.

But this would mean that they were in possession of superior knowledge that was equal, if not superior to our own, for our astronomers are barely capable of duplicating their feats, even with the help of modern, high-speed computers.
Moreover, data such as proper motion of the stars, Earth’s librations, the Precession of the Equinoxes, and other such phenomena, require sophisticate instruments for their determination, and cannot conceivably be made without the help of giant, precision telescopes and the associated technology. And this superior technology and science far transcends all that the ancient Egyptians we know of could ever have had.
Despite all the many erudite treatises written on the Great Pyramid, two crucial question still remain open. One is if the ancient Egyptians had the technology to build the gigantic monument. The other is if Cheops is truly its builder. Of course, if the superior science that is apparently embodied in the Great Pyramid is a fact, the Egyptians — who clearly lacked it — could never have been its builders.
The only possibility, if such is truly the case, as it appears to be, is that the Great Pyramid was built, just as the legends affirm, by a superior civilisation unknown to us, such as that of the Atlanteans. The other possibilities — those of Astronaut-gods or of Preternatural Revelation are not even worthwhile considering in any serious discussion of the subject.
There is, clearly, no solution to the dilemma, and we are left in a quandary. Unless the above date is refuted — and we do not see how it can be deemed a mere coincidence or a computational illusion — we are left with no other alternative than the conclusion that the ancients were in possession of a Superior Science. And this Science could only possibly come from Atlantis, as is obvious in hindsight.

APPENDIX I

1- The Egyptian Calendar

The Egyptians utilised a year of 12 months of 30 days each, to which they added 5 epagomenal days at the end. The year started with the first heliacal rising of Sirius, which occurred in July 22 (Julian style). This was called the First Day of the First Month or, alternatively, the 1st. of Toth. The months were subdivided in three decanes of 10 days each, whose start was marked by the heliacal rising of the decane stars along the year.
Such a calendar, marked by the stars, gradually gets out of step with the seasons, which are determined by the Solar Year of 365.242199074 days or, roughly, 365 ¼ days. Hence, a full day is lost every four years. At the end of 4 x 365 = 1460 years, a full year is completed, so that the seasons again return to normal. This value of 1460 years is called a Sothic Cycle, for it is ruled by the heliacal rise of Sirius, which the Egyptians called Sothis.
The Sothic Cycle had a great importance for the Egyptians, who associated it with the rebirth of the Phoenix, and its return form Paradise to Heliopolis, the city at the head of the Nile’s delta, near the Great Pyramid. The Phoenix was also associated with the start of the calendar and with the Great Pyramid, on whose top it was said to alight when it reached its destination.
The fiery bird was an image of the burning of the primordial Paradise (Punt) whence the Egyptians originally came, driven by the terribly destructive conflagration. The survivors of the cataclysm started a new era and a new calendar in their new abode, in North Africa, the second Egypt, the only one we recognise, despite the persistent references to the Primordial Egypt in sources such as the Bible, the Egyptian traditions and many others.
The Latin writer Censorinus determined that a Sothic Year — the year when the Sothic Cycle completed itself, and the Nile started its flood on the day of the New Year — had taken place in 139AD and, hence, again in the Sothic Years of 1321 BC / 2781 BC / 4241 BC / 5701 BC, and so on. Egyptologists usually consider the dates of 4241 BC or 2781 BC as the most likely for the start of the Egyptian calendar. But they have no other reason for that than the fact that they reject the far older dates given by Egyptian traditions and by historians such as Manetho and Herodotus.

2 – The Absolute Dates

A far more accurate value of the Sothic Cycle can be computed from the worth of the Solar Year given above. Computed from its fractional portion, the correct value turns out to be 1507 years, for 1507 x 0.242199074 = 365.00 days or, almost exactly, a year. Hence, the true Sothic Years, computed as in the above example, turn out to be: 139 AD / 1368 BC / 2875 BC / 4382 BC / 5889 BC / 7396BC / 8903 BC / 10,410 BC / 11,917 BC, and so on.
Counting forward, we verify that the year of 1646 AD was also a Sothic Year. By coincidence (?), that is more or less the epoch when Pope Gregory XIII introduced the reform of the calendar, instituting the Gregorian calendar which is in use nowadays. To bring the calendar back to step with the seasons, 11 days were skipped, which had been lost since the introduction of the Julian calendar by Julius Caesar.
Hence, with reference to the Sothic Year of 1646 AD, the Sothic Years listed above yield dates that are almost exactly equal to those of that year. There is a slight difference of 3 days in 10,000 years due to the imperfect correction of the Gregorian calendar in present usage. Indeed, this fact explains why the feasts of Christmas and of St. John — which correspond to the Winter Solstice and the Summer Solstice — are commemorated, respectively, in Dec. 25 and June 24, instead of the correct days, which fall on Dec. 21 and June 21, the dates of the solstice.
In fact, the difference of 3 or 4 days corresponds to the one resulting from the 12,000 years that had elapsed since the start of the calendar to the time when these feasts were instituted, at about 0 BC. This up to now unexplained fact is a further, cogent proof that the calendar was really instituted some 14,000 years ago, just as indicated by the Great Pyramid’s alignment with Vega., the Pole Star of this epoch.
As long as we stick to the exact Sothic Years determined above, we can consider the dates indicated by stellar events such as the alignment of Vega to be the same as the present ones, except for the slight correction of 3 days in 10,000 years mentioned above. Hence, the date determined from Vega’s alignment of June 24, 11,917 BC — which is exactly the one of St. John’s Day — truly corresponds to that of June 21, the exact day of the Summer Solstice, for the year in question is a Sothic Year.

3- The Rebirth of the Phoenix

In many ways, the fiery figure of St. John corresponds to that of the Phoenix, reborn of its own cinders. For instance, John is often figured as the Eagle, a representation of the Phoenix. And this bird, in turn, symbolises the rebirth of Paradise, killed in the Orient, but reborn in the Occident, in the land of Egypt, “the second abode of Ptah” (Hat-ka-Ptah).
St. John’s day is commemorated with bonfires upon the hilltops, just as was the New Year and the Summer Solstice in Egypt and elsewhere. The festivity corresponds to that of Beltane in England, and the Midsummer festivals of Europe and elsewhere. The fact that some of these feasts are so displaced from the date of the Summer Solstice points to the fact that they are indeed extremely archaic, and that the displacement is due to the Precession of the Equinoxes.
It is pertinent to question the reason why the ancient Egyptians commemorated the New Year in Memphis in July 22 (1st. of Toth), rather than on the date of the Summer Solstice (June 21), which is also the date when the Nile starts to flood. The fact is that the heliacal rise of Sirius starts one day later per degree of latitude increase.
Thus, at the latitude of Thebes (26° N), Sirius started to rise heliacally in July 20. Five degrees further north, in Tanis (31° N), at the Nile’s mouth, this event happened on the 25th. of July. Four more degrees further north, in Olympia (Greece), at a latitude of 35° N, it took place on the 29th. of July. As we see, the rule given is followed rather accurately, and is confirmed by other examples that could be provided.
This remarkable fact proves that the calendar was not indeed invented in Egypt proper, but somewhere further south, in the region of the Equator where, according to the above rule, Sirius starts to rise heliacally at the exact date of the Summer Solstice, a full month earlier than in Egypt itself. And this land can only be Punt (Indonesia), the original abode of the Egyptians and, indeed, of some other nations such as that of the blue-eyed Ethiopians of Pliny and Solinus. Punt is the Egyptian equivalent of Eden, the Primordial Paradise whence came the Phoenix to Egypt at the dawn of times, shortly after the epoch of the start of the calendar.

4- The A Priori Probability of Vega’s Alignment with the Great Pyramid

The a priori probability that the alignment of the Great Pyramid with the star Vega is purely coincidental can easily be computed from the precisions of the measurements in question. Given the fact that the correct date and the exact alignment were both predicted beforehand, as we saw in the main text of this article, there can be no doubt whatsoever that this is indeed the event indicated by the Great Pyramid.
The angular precision is about 1’ in 360° in both Declination and Azimuth. The hourly precision is about 1min. per day; 1 day per year; 1 year per Precession cycle (25,826 years); 1 day per year for the Summer Solstice and 1 year per Sothic cycle (1,507 years). The total probability is the product of these numbers, which yields just about 10-24, as is easy to verify.

5- The Minor Corrections

We have thoroughly investigated all the corrections, both large and small, which are required over the huge time spans in question. Here we review the minor corrections, and leave the major ones for the next section.

a) Continental Drift
This cause has often been invoked to explain the westward rotation of a few minutes of a degree of the Great Pyramid. But these seem due more to inadequate measurements, rather than to reality, as the more accurate measurements of A. Pochan suggest. Anyway, their effect barely affects the date, and amounts to just about 12 seconds of time, or less, being entirely negligible.

b) Pole Shift
Pole Drift is about 0,0032” per year and random in nature. Modern secular estimates yield values of about 19” or under for the time intervals considered, being entirely negligible for our purposes.

c) Parallax and Aberration
These are non-cumulative, and amount to a maximum of 0.3”, being also negligible here.

d) Atmospheric Refraction
This correction is given by r = 60.34” tg z’, where z’ is the zenithal distance of Vega. This amounts to 60° 00’ – 3° 40’ = 56° 20’. Hence, r = 1° 30’, which should be added to the true latitude of the Great Pyramid. Since this is 29° 58’ 51”, we get a value of 30° 00’ 21” for the apparent latitude of the Great Pyramid, as determined by stellar positions.
Many have interpreted this result as indicative of the fact that the ancient Egyptians aligned this monument at exactly 30° N by means of such accurate measurements, and that Continental Drift is responsible for the slight difference of 21”.

e) Nutation
Nutation is a non-cumulative phenomenon, and amounts to under 9” at most, being negligible for our purposes.

6 – The Major Corrections

a) Proper Motion of Vega
Over the huge span of time we are contemplating, this correction amounts to over a full degree, and have to be taken into consideration. This sort of value was not available in the times of Piazzi Smyth or Sir John Herschell, so that their results are correspondingly in error.
The Celestial Coordinates of Vega and its Proper Motions are given, for the year 2000, by:

From these values, and the alignment date of 11,917 BC, we obtained, by trial-and-error, the corrected values:

ac = 18h 40 min 21.5 sec dc = 39° 52’ 34”

The correction in declination amounts to fully 1° 05’ 34”, and the one in right ascension to 3 min 25.5 sec, which are both substantial, and must be taken into consideration.

b) Correction for Earth’s Libration

Exactly as the Moon, the Earth also librates in relation to the moving point g, as the result of luni-solar and planetary interactions with its equatorial bulge. Though unfamiliar to positional astronomers, these librations have been calculated by means of Celestial Mechanics, and are very substantial over the large spans of time we are considering.
Earth’s libration amounts to ±1.2° about the average of 23° 00’ of Earth’s inclination with relation to the ecliptic plane, having a period of 41,000 years. When adjusted for the values calculated by Celestial Mechanics and for the empirical determinations of ancient astronomers such as Eratosthenes and Ptolemy, Earth’s inclination (e), which is variable due to libration, is given to a high accuracy by:

e = 22.965 + 1.16 sin 8.80 (t +2.825)

Here, the time (t) is given in millennia, measured backwards from the present time, and e, the libration, is given in degrees. The above formula, though simple, matches both the theoretical and the empirical values determined by the above mentioned astronomers to better than 1’ for the epochs envisaged. It yields a value of 23° 27’ 08” for the present inclination of the ecliptic plane, and a rate of 58.2”/century for its present rate of change, which also accurately match the ones determined by modern astronomy.
Substituting the value of t = 11,917 + l,996 years = 13.913 millennia, we get a value of 23° 35’ 29” for the inclination of the Ecliptic plane at the time of the Great Pyramid’s alignment with Vega. We note that this value is far smaller than the one corresponding to the peak value of the libration, because this value was passed, and Earth’s inclination returned to just 8’ above its present value.
However, for the date supposedly attributed to Pharaoh Cheops (2,670 BC), this amounted to 24° 01’ 09”, a value 34’ larger than it is presently worth. This is the value that should have been utilised in order to obtain the correct alignment of Thuban in the epoch of Pharaoh Cheops, and is an additional source of large errors in the calculations of both Smyth and Herschell.

7 – Parameters and Experimental Results

The Great Pyramid is aligned with an extraordinary precision along the four Cardinal Directions, so that the Entrance Gallery points exactly towards the north with a precision of about one minute of a degree, which is entirely negligible for our purposes, for this corresponds to just four seconds of time.
The Entrance Corridor descends at an angle of 26° 31’ 23”, according to I. E. S. Edwards and other experts. The measurements of Piazzi Smyth, often quoted by his followers, differ slightly (26° 18’ 10”), but are obsolete and unreliable. His own measurements yielded a value of about 26° 27’ 13”, which he abandoned in favour of the lower value that has, according to him, a theoretical connection with his famous “Pyramid Prophecies”. In fact, this unjustified assumption adds a further error of about 10’ to his astronomical calculations concerning Thuban.
The Great Pyramid is located in the environs of Cairo, at a latitude of exactly 29° 58’ 51” N, and a longitude of 31° 09’ E. If one utilises the co-ordinates of Cairo given in computer programs such as SkyGlobe (30° 03’ N; 31° 15’ E), the difference of about 4’ 9” in latitude has to be introduced as a correction, as we did here.
In the below list we show, for easy comparison, all the significant corrections detailed above, as well as the values of the parameters we utilised in order to verify the alignment of the Great Pyramid with Vega. As can be seen, despite the huge span of time, and the large values assumed by these corrections, the agreement between the alignment of the Descending Corridor and the corrected value of Vega’s altitude is essentially perfect. At the epoch of the start of the Egyptian calendar, on the date of 6:00 AM, June 24, 11,917 BC, the two values agree to a precision of about 13” of a degree of the empirical determinations.
We also note that even the correction of 45’ in Right Ascension, due to Vega’s Proper Motion during the elapsed time, and which amounts to fully 3 minutes of time, has also to be embodied in the date of the alignment we obtained, and which yielded a time of 6:03 AM. Hence, the correct value of the hour for the epoch in question is exactly 6:00 AM. The perfect coincidence of this correction value is further proof that the alignment in question is the true one indicated by the Great Pyramid.
As we calculated above, this precision yields a probability of less than 1 part in 1024 of being purely random. At the same time, our results also rule out the fact that Thuban was the star aimed at by the Great Pyramid, for it lies several degrees off the direction truly indicated by the its Entrance Gallery.
Hardly would the ancient Egyptians take so much pain in carving this amazingly accurate corridor inside solid rock, merely to point to an insignificant star of fourth magnitude, which is not linked to any significant date or myth, and is, furthermore, misaligned with Thuban by several degrees. As we said above, the Egyptians were capable of precisions of better than 1’, and would never make such a clumsy mistake.

The corrected date of the above alignment is 6:00 AM, June 24, 11,917 BC, the First Hour of the day of the Summer Solstice of the Sothic Year in question, which is also that of the start of the Egyptian Calendar. To this day a further correction of three days, corresponding to the imperfect correction of the Gregorian calendar over the elapsed period of time has also to be effected, so that the right (Gregorian) date is June 21, rather than June 24, the indicated date.
As we said further above, the great Pyramid is aimed fully 3° 29’ away from the Pole. This is precisely the closest distance that Vega ever gets to the Pole, confirming that it was this star and no other that the ancient Egyptians had in mind. In contrast, Thuban (a Draconis) passes at a scant 3’ away from the Pole.
Had they wished to indicate that star, the Egyptians would have aimed the Great Pyramid fully 3° 26’ farther up, almost directly towards the North Pole. Moreover, this closest approach of Thuban occurred at about 2780 BC, which is far closer to the epoch of Pharaoh Cheops (2570 BC) than the ones calculated by Piazzi Smyth (2160 and 3440 BC). This fact again means that Vega, rather than Thuban, is the star aimed at by the Great Pyramid’s alignment for, otherwise, it would point directly towards the North Pole.

8 – Experimental Techniques

For the purposes of the present article, we have utilized techniques that offer an easy way for the amateur astronomer to verify our computations for himself. By using computer programs such as SkyGlobe 3.6, that reach back to the epochs in consideration, he can visualize our results most vividly, in a planetarium-like fashion.
To this end, all he has to do is to feed to the computer program the usual parameters corrected by the values given above, which add up to 1° 20’ 30” for Declination, and 3 min 24 sec for Right Ascension. The angle has to be added to the Right Ascension or, equivalently, subtracted from the inclination of the Entrance Corridor, whereas the time should be added to the value of the Right Ascension. If he uses the co-ordinates of Cairo, as we did in the present article, he has to subtract from the latitude the value mentioned further above of 0.3’, which is the actual difference between the two.
The results obtained with SkyGlobe 3.6 are shown in Fig.1, which is printed directly from the program. If the reader uses the values given above, he should obtain identical results. The parameters given in Fig.1 are the ones printed out from the program itself. In Fig. 2 we show a cross-section of the Great Pyramid along the northward direction, that of the descending Corridor.
As can be seen from Fig.1, the alignment of the Great Pyramid obtained for Vega is exact, despite the limitations of the program, which were corrected by means of the technique detailed above. If more exact computer programs are used by those equipped with them, the corrections mentioned will not be required, and the same results should be obtained directly.
The reader is encouraged to play around with the parameters given, in order to verify how exacting they all are. We are sure that he will conclude with us that this, and no other alignment but that of Vega, is indicated by the Great Pyramid, and that the right date for the start of the Egyptian calendar is indeed the one of 6:00 A.M., June 24, 11,917 BC. This date corresponds to the first hour of the day of the Summer Solstice of the Sothic year of 11,917 AC, which is fully a zodiacal era prior to the date of the Flood cataclysm that ended the Pleistocene era.
Annex
FRAME I
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OBSERVING THE ALIGNMENT OF VEGA

The reader familiar with the use of Astronomical Computer Programs such as SkyGlobe 3.6, which reach back to the dates in question, can observe Vega’s alignment with the Great Pyramid’s Grand Gallery for himself.
All he has to do is to position himself at the co-ordinates of Cairo or thereabouts, which are approximately those of the Great Pyramid. He should then adjust his parameters to agree with the ones given in Fig. 1, in order to get a perfect alignment.
These values are those of the alignment of the Great Pyramid’s Grand Gallery, discounted of the corrections due to atmospheric refraction, misplacement of the observation position, Vega’s proper motion and the Earth’s libration, which add up to considerable values over the huge expanse of time concerned. In Appendix I we give all the details about these corrections, which are required in order to work out the Great Pyramid’s alignment with Vega.
The reader is encouraged to play with the dates and the co-ordinates given, in order to verify how sensitive they all are. He can also utilise Piazzi Smyth’s results, and see for himself that it is impossible to get meaningful results, insofar as the dates, the seasons and the Sothic years are concerned.
In Fig.1 we show the results that can be obtained by using SkyGlobe 3.6 adjusted to the co-ordinates of Cairo and for the corrections required, as expounded in Appendix I. As can be seen, the agreement is perfect, despite the huge time span involved and the limited precision of the computer program in question.
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Fig. 1- The Great Pyramid’s Alignment with Vega
(The Figure is the one obtained through SkyGlobe 3.6, with the parameters indicated in it, and with the legend included in bottom, right-hand corner).